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in Easy Garden DIY· Garden How To

DIY Dirt- Make Your Own Potting Soil

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We have a 2′ x 4′ cedar planter box that needs potting soil.

Soon… so that I can get my herb garden going.

Buying bagged soil is going to cost Tom and I a small fortune.  

Over $70 I estimated for just this one box.

And I have several other containers and pots that need to be filled, too.

Even though we spent over $500 to fill our three raised beds with garden soil, this type of soil is just too heavy when growing in pots.

It’s time to make my own potting soil that is both lighter and more airy than garden soil.

Are you in? Want to make your own potting soil and save some serious cash?

The best soil is going to include ingredients like rotted sawdust, cured compost and leaf mold.

Great if you happen to have trash bags filled with rotted leaves that have been decaying for at least two years.

But if you don’t, some substitutions can be made.

A quick example is how anyone can get their hands on some clean sand. Sand works well to increase texture and improve drainage for plants that don’t like to get waterlogged.

Even better is the addition of perlite! Perlite is an ingredient that no good potting soil can live without.

Tom acquired a bag of sawdust from the technology teacher at school, but it’s far from the “rotted” state I need it to be in for my soil mix.

So for now, I’ll have to do the best I can with the best ingredients I can find. 

Commercial potting soils, the kind you buy already bagged up are made up of some combination of perlite, peat moss and vermiculite.

The problem is that these three ingredients are lacking in nutrients.

Real potting soil, the kind all gardeners made 50 years ago would have included their best garden soil with rotted manure from the barn and leaf mold.

And yet, there’s no perfect formula.

I’ll be adding some manure, humus, sand, wood ash, blood meal, mushroom compost, saw dust and the best leaf mold I can find.

Not completely broken down but it will eventually break down in my planter box.

I can always tweak my soil down the road depending on how my plants do.

Here’s what you need to make your own potting soil:

Peat Moss  (natural & organic soil conditioner that regulates moisture and air around plant roots)  

  • Vermiculite  (Improves water and nutrient holding, prevents soil compaction, neutral pH)

 

  • Compost  (High in organic matter and therefore supports friendly microoganisms)

 

  • Perlite  (Improves drainage & aeration)

 

  • Fertilizer 

 

  • 5-gallon bucket 

 

  • Wheelbarrow to mix in

Here’s what you might want to add to make your own potting soil:

  • Manure & humus (Loaded in nutrients and helps soil retain water) 

 

  • Mushroom compost (Improves clay & sandy soil) 

 

  • Sand (Lightens soil and improves texture) 

 

  • Wood Ash or lime (Helps improve soil structure & root development, high in calcium. Raises soil pH) 

 

  • Rotted leaves or rotted sawdust (untreated wood only) if you have any on hand

 

  • Blood meal (for nitrogen)

 

  • Bone meal (for phosphorus)

 

  • Kelp Meal (Chock-full of nutrients)

 

  • Topsoil (why not throw in an extra bag if you have it already lying around?)

Instructions on how to make your own potting soil:

While it’s feasible to use a large pot, I’m going to mix my soil in a wheelbarrow.

Not only is it bigger to mix in, but then I can just wheel it around to where I want to spread my dirt. 

  • Mix one part peat moss, vermiculite and compost. The easiest way is just to grab a bucket and throw one bucket of each part into your mixing container. 

  • Next, I added a half bucket of perlite. Can you even have enough perlite? Nope. Love this stuff for aeration!

  • Add a little water and give it a good stir with a shovel

  • Now it’s time to add a scoop of your fertilizer. Obviously chicken poop would be great right now but I don’t have any so I’ll have to settle for some store bought fertilizer.

  • And because I’m not a perfectionist, I went ahead and added a scoop of wood ash, blood meal and sand. Then I added 1/2 cup of lime.

  • Last, I threw in my manure/humus mixture, the best leaf mold I could scrap up from the garden and some compost, both bagged and natural. I even threw in a handful of sawdust, though not rotted, will break down in the pot. I stumbled across a bag of mushroom compost which I threw in a bucket of as well. 

What we paid to make our own potting soil:

All these products are relatively cheap in small bags, and since you are adding so many ingredients, you don’t need the larger bags unless you plan on making a ton of soil!

And keep in mind, all the ingredients have several uses so what I don’t use now will get repurposed down the road.

Take the sand, for example, what I don’t use goes right into the kids’ turtle sand box.

The bag of lime I bought will be useful for the next couple of years, a little goes a long way.

So the total price here doesn’t exactly reflect what it cost to fill my boxes, in reality, it costs a lot less. 

Ingredient
Peat Moss
Vermiculite
Compost
Perlite
Mushroom Compost
Blood Meal
Lime
Play Sand
Humus & Manure
Wood Ash
Saw Dust
Leaf Mold
Quantity
3 cubit feet
8 dry quarts
1 cubit foot
8 quarts
40 pounds
3 pounds
6 pounds
.5 cubit foot
.75 cubit feet
endless supply
endless supply
endless supply
Price
$10.97
$4.28
$3.98
$3.82
$3.88
$6.97
$6.48
$2.97
$2.97
free
free
free
So for $46.32 I made all the soil I needed for my planter and all my pots with plenty of leftover ingredients to use in the future.

If I had just bought the bagged soil, I would have spent more and had zero product for future use. 

The bottom line? I had to triple my own recipe to fill my box. But I prefer making soil in smaller batches.

After thoroughly mixing my dirt and shifting through it, I was so pleased I decided to make my own.

Both the quantity and quality exceeded my expectations, much better and cheaper than the store bought version.

Have you ever made your own potting soil?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  10. ellen beck says

    Great combo! I always have the composting parts- leaf mold and sawdust. People think I am nuts for saving it!

    Reply

  11. Betsy Pauzauskie says

    I like the ideas you presented! I feel happy to have options for manure and chicken/guinea poop available at no cost. And, the guidance you give is invaluable! Thank you.

    Reply

  24. Angela Simmons says

    Even after reading this, I’ll buy potting soil. Sourcing and storing components are tough on a 1/3 acre lot in the burbs. Beginning of the season sales and clearance sales make it dirt cheap and easy.

    Reply

  37. Lynda Johnson says

    This will definitely come in handy. I live in the Carolinas where the ground is nothing but hard, red clay. Can’t wait to try all of the new thing I have been learning from your articles.

    Reply

  42. Sarah Bridges says

    I’ve never tried making my own soil, but will now! Soil is so pricey and I can never seem to find the type I’m looking for.

    Reply

  48. Christy Keen says

    No, never made my own potting soil, but thank you for the great info. With the purchase of my new home I now have a huge garden spot, so I will be putting out a huge garden this year.

    Reply

  55. Kathy Derrick says

    I’m an avid gardener and have been buying my potting soil for years. Not anymore. Thanks for the great tips!

    Reply

  56. Jennifer Phillips says

    Great tips! I am so bad when it comes to figuring out or adding the proper nutrients and things to soil. But this will help me a lot.

    Reply

  66. Gayle Watkins says

    I have made potting soil beforte, but it was certainly not with this precision or thought. Thank you for the info.

    Reply

  67. Julie Waldron says

    I’ve never made my own potting soil but it sounds like it would work great and it’s nice knowing what’s in it.

    Reply

  70. Dale Steele Nicolov says

    I have never made my own potting soil.I congratulate you on all your hard work and recycling natural ingredients.

    Reply

  78. Kimberly M. says

    On top of other expenses having a garden cutting back on soil would be a big savings. I am going to make planter boxes over the winter to occupy some time while we aren’t suppose to be out and about due to the pandemic. Hopefully I can come up with all the ingredients to make my own soil. What a big savings that will be.

    Reply

  92. Christine F. says

    Yes, we have and we even add gypsum because we used to have very heavy hard clay. Compost and rotting leaves have turned it into beautiful loam. Thank you for the ideas.

    Reply

  106. Laurie Nykaza says

    My mom is dropping everything in my drive way to make soil .Christmas Cactus soil and Orchid too its what i wanted for Christmas to pot up my plant starts. Great information here which i will share in making your own..

    Reply

  108. Cheryl Larimer says

    I have never made my own soil, in fact I have never even considered it. You always have so much great information and make me a better gardener.

    Reply

  112. Donna Rooney says

    May have to try this. I have had horrible problems with grass growing too. So will try anything for the garden now.

    Reply

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